A machine for producing twisted filaments may be constructed, for example, as a ring spinning frame, a ring twisting machine, an open-end rotor spinning machine, an open end friction spinning machine or the like. The common to these types of machines is that they produce twisted filaments. Suitable starting materials for twisted filaments of this kind include, for example, spun fibers and continuous filaments. The operating units of machines of this kind, such as the spindles, rotors, separating rollers and the like are driven with whorls by means of tangential belts. As a result of the looping of the driven whorls, however slight, and their pressing rollers caused by the tangential belt, there is considerable energy consumption and wear on the belt over the large number of operating units. This energy consumption and wear on the belt increases as the number of operating units increases overall, but also for each operating unit, since the tangential belt must be made thicker and/or wider for a larger number of operating units in order to transmit the power required.
In order to reduce the energy losses and cut down the wear on the tangential belt it has already been proposed to provide a deflecting pulley driven by the tangential belt and having the tangential belt looping round it not only at one guide point at the end but at both guide points, one at each end (DE-OS No. 21 08 335).
However, since machines of this type cannot always have two deflecting pulleys for the tangential belt even with larger and larger numbers of operating units, the possibility of avoiding energy consumption and wear by this method is very limited. Furthermore, since it has been found that the energy losses caused by the operation of the tangential belt, per operating unit, are at a minimum with a drive arrangement designed for about 250 operating units, but it is industrially desirable and useful to fit a machine for producing twisted filaments with more than 250 and possibly up to 1,000 operating units, an objective of the invention is to introduce possible ways of introducing additional energy into a single tangential belt of the type described.